The Uncharted Dark
by Dr Vanya
Summary: The Doctor is reunited with Captain Jack, now leading an exploration mission on behalf of the Earth Empire. But peaceful observation turns violent when one of the crew seems more interested in starting the first conflict than making first contact.
1. Chapter 1

The Uncharted Dark

By Vanya

Part 1

"Report Dr Goscinny." the captain barked.

"Sir, approximately thirty minutes ago navigation sited a small, unidentified object in space, and we changed course to intercept. The object turned out to be a body, a human male, perfectly preserved and he was brought on board. A preliminary examination revealed no contaminants, no obvious cause of death nor any negative effects from being in a vacuum. We're awaiting your orders of how to deal with him."

Captain Jordan surveyed the man on the table, "Poor bastard," he muttered, "There's nothing you can do for him now. I don't believe a postmortem would be the best use of your time or our resources. We'll put him into storage as we would one of our own, then when we get back to Earth the authorities can do a proper identification and autopsy."

"Yes, right away sir."

Preparing a body for storage was never pleasant, but Dr Goscinny was getting used to it, even in her few short years with the service she had dealt with her share of deaths. _He's warm,_ she thought to herself as she took hold of his shoulders, when he had first been taken aboard the body had been frozen, but now he was almost back to normal temperature. Suddenly his eyes snapped open, Dr Goscinny stumbled backwards and let out a small shriek as the corpse sat bolt upright and drew his first, pained breath.

Twelve years later

In the deep recess space, the uncharted dark of the universe, a Raven class stealth ship held it's position observing the planet Velitrax. The name was one of the few things they had been able to distinguish so far. Sitting amongst the ship's highly advanced communication systems Hugo Horowitz sifted through endless intercepted chatter from the planet, it's outlying moons and space stations. He was the Raven's communications officer and linguistics expert and this ship was his first post, he had been recruited for the mission straight out of university. On paper his orders seemed straight forward, determine if Velitrax constitutes a potential ally or threat to the Earth Empire. In reality this meant deciphering an entire alien language without the benefit of a Rosetta stone, but he was an gifted man, he would get there. Indeed, he had done it before, he had managed to successfully decipher the languages of more than one planet before he had even graduated, alliances had already been formed based on his his work. Sadly this was also the loneliest position on the ship, the rest of the crew had their tasks to do his was the only full time post. As if to torment him the ship's surveillance center had been set up in the same room, every time he glanced over at the monitors he could see the rest of the crew enjoying down time. Up until this point he and the rest of the crew had spent a lot of their time asleep, able to pass months at a time thanks the the latest sleep induction and metabolic altering technology. They would be woken periodically to take on food, expel waste and generally make sure the ship was working and they were on course. But now they had found a planet the crew was up and alert full time.

"Hi Hugo," a voice broke the silence, "Fancy a drink?"

Standing in the doorway holding two steaming cups of coffee was Clemence Goscinny, the resident doctor. Like the rest of the crew she had found herself with very little to do. Everyone had stepped aboard with a clean bill of health and since they were in a sealed environment there was no source of disease and so little activity that she rarely had to deal with even the most minor injury. But she saw her role as more than just a medic, she was in charge of the well being of the entire crew and the last thing she needed was for someone to go stir crazy.

"Thanks Clem," Hugo replied taking the cup, "Perfect." he proclaimed, taking a sip. It wasn't, but it was as good as ship coffee could be and had become a running gag between them.

"How's the work coming, made any breakthroughs yet?"

"Not with the language, this seems to be one of the more complex ones I've encountered. So far I haven't got beyond the names of things, the planet, moons, stations and such, but it's only a matter of time. However I did come across this," Hugo indicated to a chart on one of his screens, "Which I think is quite exciting. I intercepted it as part of a data packet, it looks like some kind of an intergalactic shipping route. I'm still working out exactly what it says, but based on it I don't think Velitrax is actually these people's home world. In fact it seems to be a colony on the the edges of their known space, this could be the tip of another empire, stretching out light years in other directions. With all the traffic I'd say Veletrax the source of an important natural resource."

"You should show that chart to Helena," Clem said helpfully, "Maybe she could make more sense out of it, and it'll give you two something to talk about."

"Maybe later."

"Good." she paused, "A few of us will be kicking off another poker tournament in a bit, if you feel like taking a break you should join us, you did really well last time."

"Thanks for the offer, but I really need to press on here. I'm getting close, I can feel it."

"Alright, but there'll be a film screening at twenty hundred hours, classics from the twenty third century, I expect you to be there."

"Yes Ma'am," Hugo said with a salute and a chuckle, "Anyway, must be getting back to work. Thanks for dropping by Clem, I really appreciate it."

"No problem," as she was leaving Clem caught sight of one of the surveillance monitors, "Hugo, is that the cargo hold?"

"What? Oh, yes."

"What's that?"

Hugo turned his full attention to the screen, "I have absolutely no idea, but it sure as hell wasn't there ten minutes ago."

"I think we need to inform the Captain."

xxxx

"So we're on another spaceship?" the tone of disappointment was barely disguised in Haze's voice. She'd been traveling with the Doctor for some time now, and while alien worlds and different historical periods of the Earth remained endlessly fascinating she found insides of spaceships incredibly dull. She had never been a fan of long haul travel nor had she ever had any particular interest in the advanced mechanisms that powered these vessels. Even looking out of the window had lost it's appeal, once you got over the new constellations space tended to be a bit samey.

"Yes, and apparently in the cargo hold," the Doctor had a much more enthusiastic take on the situation, he wandered round scanning the shelves, "Food, this all food. Whoever's on board must be here for the long run. Judging by the packaging this all seems to be military issue but top quality, this is the good stuff."

"Great, so we've just slipped aboard a military spaceship, why did you even want to come here?"

"I didn't, I just put the TARDIS on random."

"Well how about we skip this one?"

"Not until I've had a chance to look around, really figure out where we are. Let's see, based on the structure I'd say we're looking at around 28th century, this all looks pretty new so we're in a top of the line ship rather than some old tub floating around. We feel like we're stationary and that looks to be an inhabited planet out there. Since we're so far out and they don't seem to be paying us any attention I'd say they can't see us. The food suggests a long term mission...." suddenly the Doctor became quite excited, "Oh! We're on a Raven."

Haze knew she would regret question, but at the same time she was overcome with curiosity, "Alright, I'll ask: What's a Raven?"

"They were a series of long range stealth exploration ships. There was a stand off with the Draconian Empire on one side so the Earth Empire, well the First Earth Empire, but obviously they don't call it that, was desperate to expand in other directions. They a constructed a load long range exploration vessels and sent them off in to explore beyond the edges of the known universe. These were the edges even as far as their allies concerned, this was truly the unknown. Anyway, one of these could sit in orbit for months observing a planet and the crew's job was establish if the world was a potential ally or threat."

"So much for your traditional first contact, this is a pretty paranoid era of space exploration then."

"It was."

"You know. for some reason I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of being on paranoid military ship. I vote we get out of here before we get caught."

"That's not a bad idea, but don't think we should be in too much of a hurry to move."

"And why's that?"

"The men with guns might get nervous and do something silly."

Haze spun around to see four armed men standing in the doorway of the cargo hold, "Great," she muttered, "Captured already, this has to be a new record for us."

As they security team entered two things struck Haze as being unusual, the first was their lack on uniform, despite the Doctor's claim that this was a military ship they were all dressed in civilian clothes, one was even wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian shirt. The other was that although they carried weapons they weren't held in a threatening manner, it was as if they just happened to have guns with them.

The lead man approached them and said, "The Captain would very much like to have a chat with the two of you."

"No, it's OK," the Doctor replied, "We don't want to be a bother, do we Haze?"

"Of course not," she added, "In fact we were just leaving."

"But Doctor," the soldier said, "He was most insistent."

xxxx

"OK, I'll admit it, I'm confused," Haze said as they were escorted down the corridor, "Are we prisoners or not?"

"I'm really not sure." replied the Doctor.

The men who had taken them had been extremely unhelpful in that respect, refusing to tell them anything more.

"But this captain, you know him right, you two must be old friends?"

"Or he could be a really laid back enemy looking to settle a score. To be perfectly honest, I don't even recall ever meeting a Raven captain. I just hope I recognise him, if he's someone from my future then things could get really awkward."

As they arrived at the the captain's cabin the lead soldier pushed an intercom and announced "The visitors have arrived." and in response the door slid open.

The cabin was spacious, tastefully decorated and very white. An efficient looking work station provided everything that a captain who was never off duty needed and was accompanied by a comfortable high backed chair. A few pieces of art, some pictures and small sculptures were dotted around the room and a door lead of the equally comfortable sleeping quarters. The captain himself stood in the center of the room, ready to greet his visitors. The soldier may have been casual, but the captain himself was and anachronism dressing like someone out of the second world war rather than the near future.

"Captain." said the soldier.

"AJ." acknowledged the captain.

"Capitan?" exclaimed the Doctor.

"Doctor."

"Captain?" Haze was even more surprised to see the man before them.

"Well hello there." said Captain Jack Harkness.

xxxx

The arrival of the visitors was the most interesting thing to have happened on the ship for a while, not that there had been much competition. Consequently Hugo had abandoned his work and joined the rest of the crew in the mess hall, the social hub of the ship. Clem was already sat at the table, along with Gordon O'Rourke, the ship's chief engineer, Joseph Rennes, his adopted assistant and Caroline Nash, the computer specialist. Helena Lake, their pilot, paced back and forth at the head of the room. Hugo's arrival signalled that they were all present.

When the Raven project was first conceived there was great pressure to prevent it from being an entirely military operation and so many of the participants had been recruited from civilian organisations. Despite Clem's efforts a social schism had formed amongst the crew, with the soldiers on one side and the civilians on the other. Even though her own background was with the armed forces Clem had found herself bonding more with those outside of the service and became increasingly infuriated with the military men, in spite of all the years they had spent together they seemed unwilling to associate with the rest of the ship. They kept to their own quarters and even took their meals at separate times. In many ways Jack was the worst, barely leaving his cabin and seemingly incapable of having a conversation that didn't relate the mission.

"Right, so what do we know?" said Clem, determined to make as much of the situation as possible.

"Not much," Hugo began, "The Captain called the man 'Doctor', but didn't mention the girl by name, she was just 'his companion'. I'd assume they're old friends somehow, but I can't even begin to guess their history."

Clem nodded, she'd known Jack for years and there was still a lot about his past she didn't know. Even though she'd been there when his body had been discovered he had never been very forthcoming about his past and all his files were classified at the highest levels. She decided to try a different tactic, "Gordon, Helena, any idea how they got aboard."

The pilot shook her head, "It's impossible for any ship have got within a thousand kilometers of us and certainly no way to get past the hull without us seeing them. Besides, we're in a stealth ship, no one should even be able to see us, let alone get on board." Helena had been on spaceships most of her life, piloting them as soon as she was able. Her early career was spent with a mining company, working out of facilities located in an asteroid field and taking on some of the most dangerous shipping routes in the galaxy. She had enthusiastically accepted her invitation to fly for the Raven project but soon regretted it, exploring new galaxies was not as exciting as she had believed it would be. Before she had been an adrenaline junkie looking for a new challenge, but now she was board, working off he excess energy as best she could with home made gym equipment in her cabin and at strategic points on the ship.

"Long range teleport?" Gordon suggested helpfully, "Maybe that box has the ability to just appear at it's destination." He was the oldest member of the crew, at least in terms of physical age. Like Helena he had been recruited from the private sector, his background had been in the design and manufacture of cargo ships. Ever the optimist he refused to rule out technology that was years ahead of them, because he believed that it was possible and that somewhere someone may have mastered it.

"Maybe," Helena pondered it for a moment, "But still where would it have originated from? Couldn't have been anywhere round here, they're both human, and they know the Captain."

"I don't trust them." Rennes injected.

"Yeah, but you don't trust anyone," Helena retorted, "How long did it take you to come to terms with us?"

"That's not the point," he continued, "These two appeared out of nowhere. As for knowing the Captain, how much do any of you really know about Jack?" Rennes was the only member of the crew to lack any real purpose, although had begun to learn the basics of interstellar maintenance from Gordon.

"Jack has his secrets, there's no denying that," said Caroline, "But someone higher up knows who he really is. Whatever aspect of his past they don't want us to know about I doubt that he'd let pirates, spies, saboteurs or whatever it is you're worried about on board." No one really understood Caroline's motives for joining the expedition. Back on Earth she had been head of R&D for a highly successful computer company where she had been responsible for some of the most significant advances in recent years and her personal fortune was estimated to be in the top 10% of the Empire. But there she was, providing technical support to the ships systems and the personal computer of the crew. She even seemed uninterested in the idea of exploration or making contact with new cultures, content to just relax and wait out her time.

"May I remind you that you're _ten years_ into deep space," Rennes said, still unwilling to just accept the visitors, "This isn't the sort of place where you just run into old friends."

"I agree with Caroline," said Clem, "I sincerely doubt Jack would welcome dangerous criminals with such open arms. But this level of secrecy isn't healthy, I'm going to have a serious talk with him about this whole affair. He can only keep his silence for so long."

xxxx

After the pleasantries had been exchanged the members of Jack's crew had been dismissed, leaving the three of them standing in silence. Each of them was burning with a hundred questions, but none of them quite knew where to begin.

"So," Jack began, "Welcome to Raven 16."

"Jack, it's good to see you," said the Doctor, "But how did you end up on a Raven?"

Jack didn't return the sentiments, his tone quickly became more serious, "How long has it been since you last saw me? Months? Weeks? Days? Because I'm not like you Doctor, I can't just turn up at any point in time and space I choose. I didn't just waltz in here on a whim, I had to get here the hard way. It's been more than seven hundred years since I last saw you, ten of them spent on this ship, and I have lived them all. More or less."

"I'm sorry Jack, I really am."

Haze said nothing, she had seen a lot of strange things in her time with the Doctor and in her work before that, but she could still barely believe what unfolding before her. She had recognised Jack as soon as they had walked in, the years spent chasing aliens and reporting sightings had brought her face to face with Jack and his Torchwood team on more than one occasion. There were so many questions that she wanted to ask, in the past she would have done almost anything for an opportunity like this, but now wasn't the time. Tensions were running high, and although she was curious to know what the history between these two was she had no desire to be in the same room while they sorted out their differences. Whatever the truth of the matter was it wasn't her business.

"Anyway....." she said, breaking the awkward silence, "I think it's best if I leave you alone, you clearly have a lot of catching up to do. If you don't mind I'll go and check out the rest of the ship."

"Of course," Jack pressed the intercom, "AJ, escort this young lady the the mess hall won't you?"

"Right away Captain." came the reply.

The door slid open, letting Haze out into the corridor. Waiting for her was one of the security team she had encountered earlier, she assumed he was AJ.

"This way." he said, directing her down a corridor.

Unwilling to tolerate another awkward silence she decided to get at least one niggling questions off her chest, "If this is a military ship what's with the you and the rest casual Fridays brigade?"

Even though his clothing didn't look military issue AJ appeared to at least made an effort to dress like a soldier, wearing combat trousers, heavy army style boots and a plain white t-shirt.

"That was Dr Goscinny's idea," AJ responded irritably, "Since we were going to be sitting in deep space for years at a time she thought it would be beneficial to create a more relaxed atmosphere, no uniforms and no ranks. Jack's the captain, I'm his second in command, but after that everyone is equal."

"Interesting, and how's that working out for you?"

"The civvies seem happy enough but I think it's the wrong way to go about things."

"And why is that?"

"This is a military operation, without structure people get lazy and make mistakes."

"Had any major problems yet?"

"It only takes one to get us all killed."

"So that's a 'no' then."

AJ's lack of response signalled to Haze that she's won the argument.

xxxx

"You didn't flirt with her, you didn't even ask her name. Jack, you're slipping." The Doctor said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Sorry to disappoint you, it's a by-product of being captain of the USS Abstinence."

"So how did you end up here, if you don't mind my asking? And what did you mean when you said 'more or less'?"

"It's a long story, but the abridged version: I spent about a hundred years floating through space."

"What, really?"

"Yes, really, a hundred and nine years, two months and thirteen days to be precise. I spent a while drifting round the universe acting as a kind of soldier of fortune. You see, there was the group slavers, trafficking life forms all over the known universe. They were human, mostly, but had no qualms about dealing in human slaves, they'd quite happily sell their own kind to whoever could afford them. They were despicable people, but the authorities on Earth were getting nowhere with them, so went after them on my own. I infiltrated one of their ships with the hope of bringing down the entire operation, but they discovered what I was doing and didn't take a very favorable view of it. I tried to escape but they managed to catch me and I was executed. And then I was executed again. After the third time the situation got a lot more complicated. Some of them wanted to try and sell me, they had the contacts and believed I could be work a lot of money on the black market, there were plenty of people who would pay top dollar to cut me open and see how I work. But this was one of the rare cases where professionalism won over. I knew too much, I was capable of down the operation but I couldn't be killed, so they settled for throwing me out of an airlock in deep space."

"You know, you're extremely lucky to have been found at all."

"Tell me about it. Anyway I was picked up by a scout ship, I can tell you that Clem, she was the doctor who was working on me by the way, got a pretty nasty shock when I woke up. We get along great now though, she's only just down the hall, she's the medic on this ship too. Captain Jordan decided that not dying was actually a pretty useful skill for a soldier and so joined the crew, not that I had much of a choice. Not long after that he was killed in action and after we returned to Earth I inherited the command, apparently the higher ups had some secret files on me and decided I was the best man for the job. And these really aren't to sort of people you say 'no' to. Then the first assignment with my new command was the Raven project."

The Doctor pondered Jack's story, "Any idea why they put you on a Raven? I'd have thought there would be better uses for a man of you talents."

"Well I have a colourful history and over the years I haven't been very good with authority. Even through they have my records it's a while since I worked for any kind of official body. Maybe they're just testing the waters, see if I can be trusted with a serious command."

"When it comes to you Jack one thing they have is time."

"True," Jack let out a sigh of relief and collapsed into the chair, and for the first time he smiled, "It's good to see you Doctor, it really is. After everything that's happened I haven't let anyone get to close, I've been on this ship ten years now and I barely know anyone out there and I've had to keep who I am hidden. But seeing you again, I feel more myself than I have done in a very long time. You remind me of the good times, remember Kyoto?"

"Oh yes," the Doctor chuckled, "That was a close one. Still always glad to help, how about we get out of here and get better acquainted with the ship?"

xxxx

The mess had gone quiet at the first hint of talking down the corridor. One was the gruff, if little heard voice of AJ Warren, committed but anti-social soldier, the other however was new. There was definitely only one person with him, the girl, who spoke with a distinct Scottish accent. Still riveted by the new arrivals all eyes turned to the doorway as they stepped into the mess. Next to AJ the girl seemed tiny, the soldier had well over a foot on her. Like the rest of the crew she was dressed casually, blue jeans and a red t-shirt, her dyed purple hair coming down to her shoulders and her green eyes, behind stylish glasses. After a moment she realised that all eyes in the room were on her, feeling slightly awkward she raised her hand and said "Hi."

"Hello," replied Clem, smiling broadly and accompanied by a general murmur from the room, "Have a seat, would you like anything?"

"No, I'm fine thanks." Haze replied as she was guided into a chair.

"Sorry to be so blunt," Clem said once she was seated, "But who are you?"

"My name's Haze, Haze McCall," she paused, trying to work out what to tell them. Her story would sound utterly ridiculous, she came from Earth, but hundreds of years ago, before things like space flight were routine. That in her time aliens were rare and she had spent years of her life finding and reporting on them, and then one day she had met a Time Lord who offered to show her the wonders of the universe and that they had blundered onto the ship by accident rather than any kind of plan. Eventually she decided to keep it vague, "I'm just a lost traveller."

In this situation vague wasn't good enough, she was in a room full of people desperate for answers, and so Clem continued with her questioning, "Come on, there's got to be more to it than that, what are you doing here, how do you know Jack?"

"I met him briefly a few years ago. On Earth," she added helpfully, "But I don't think he even remembers me, it's the Doctor he's interested in."

"Who is this Doctor?" Rennes demanded, with a little more destruction than was necessary, "What's his connection to the Captain?"

"I don't really know, we......" but she was cut off.

Around the mess hall red lights started to flash and an alarm started to ring.

xxxx

The lights in the captain's cabin dimmed, replaced by a dull red glow and a low, rhythmic alert sounded.

"Jack," the Doctor said slowly, "Is there something you want to tell me?"

The Captain dashed over to his work station, a panic look in his eyes, "Someone's activated the weapon systems, but there's no one can see us, nothing even close to our position, we're the one's on the offensive!"

"Can you shut it down?"

"Too late!"

They both rushed to the window to see a pair of missiles streaking towards the alien world.

End of Part 1


	2. Chapter 2

The Uncharted Dark

By Vanya

Part 2

"What's going on?" it was Haze's turn to ask questions was a wave of panic spread through the mess.

"Weapons system has been activated," Clem said, her voice carrying over the commotion, "Come on!"

Without a second thought she grabbed the stranger's hand, pulling her towards the sick bay.

xxxx

"My place is here," Jack said, taking his seat and quickly trying to process all the information flashing on the screen in front of him, "In a combat situation the entire internal communication system functions as a two way radio, wherever you are I can hear you. Now go, do what you do best."

With that the Doctor sprinted to the door.

"Doctor," Jack called out, causing him to pause and turn around, "You're going to need this." Jack removed a key for around his neck and threw it across the room. The Doctor caught it and continued through the ship.

xxxx

Helena was also running, her station was on the flight deck. She didn't know why the missiles had been fired, but she did know was that their position had been compromised and they would need to make a very quick getaway. As she tore into the cockpit she almost collided with a man in a Hawaiian shirt.

"Kreigler!" she exclaimed, "What's going on?"

"How the hell should I know?" the soldier replied angrily, "I heard the alarm and came here, just like you."

"You got here pretty damn fast." she muttered as she hunched over the main console. On the screen she could see the missiles approaching their target, getting closer and closer with every passing second. Her right hand reached over and flicked open a cover, revealing a small, lit red button which she pressed down hard. Nothing happened.

"Come on," she growled, as she jabbed the button repeatedly, before practically screaming: "Come on, work you piece of..."

"What's wrong?"

Helena and Kreigler both jumped at the sound of the new, unfamiliar voice, "Someone's triggered a missile launch and the kill switch isn't working." She said, reasoning asking more questions was going to slow things down.

"Out of the way!"

The newcomer, the Captain's mysterious friend, pushed her aside before dropping onto his knees and pulling the panel of the console, "I'm giving you a boost," he mumbled as the attacked the wiring, "Lets see if your destruct signal's any clearer at 500% efficiency. Try it now."

Helena hit the red button again, "Still nothing."

xxxx

From the work station in his cabin Jack could only watch. He could see and hear everything that went on aboard, every effort had been made to stop the missiles, but the efforts had been in vain. He looked on helplessly as the missiles collided its target, with one of the space stations of Velitrax. Through the vacuum of space the explosions made no sound, and the distance made the true extent of the damage impossible to make out. He had no idea what it had been used for, how many had died, what he did know was that they had just fired, unprovoked, on a completely unknown enemy. In situation like that there was only one thing to do.

"Attention everyone," he said as his voice carried all over the ship, "For reasons unknown we have just fired on Velitrax, severely damaging one of it's outlying space stations. The person responsible will be held accountable for their actions but for the moment we have just committed an act of war on behalf of the Empire. Helena, if you would be so kind as to get us out of here, maximum speed, I'm authorising the use of the hyper-charger device."

xxxx

"Great," Helena said irritably, "And how am I supposed to do that Jack?"

"What do you need?" asked the Doctor.

"It can only be activated after two keys are turned simultaneously, here," she indicated to one key hole on the console, "And here. I have one key, but Jack has the other."

"You mean this one?" the Doctor said.

"OK then, we're in business," they both inserted their keys into the appropriate holes, "Three, two, one, now!"

They both turned their key and a panel on the main console slid aside, revealing a large, green button. Helena took her seat at the controls and began to set the coordinates to return them to Earth and for the first time in months the ship moved, pointing back to the way they had come. Leaning forward the pilot pressed down the button with the palm of her hand, activating the hypercharger device. The ship lurched forward as the system triggered a great increase of speed, but slowed again quickly. Sparks flew from the pilot's console as Helena was flung across the cockpit by the force. Deep in space the ship just drifted onwards.

xxxx

"We need a stretcher team on the bridge now!"

It was the call Clem had been dreading. When the alarm had first sounded she had hoped she would have little to do, that they could make it through the crisis without any serious casualties. In one hand she grabbed a med kit, a short term solution until they could get the injured crew member back to sick bay and in the other she picked up a light weight folding stretcher. Some of the soldiers would have to do the actually carrying, finally get them to do something useful for the mission.

Clem made her way to the bridge as quickly as she could, with Haze closely behind her. The sight that awaited them was not a pleasant one. The pilot's console was badly damaged, displaying a large scorch mark down the centre. Some way away from it Helena lay sprawled on the floor with the Doctor kneeling next to her.

"I'm sorry," he said solemnly, looking up from where Helena was lying, "She's dead."

Clem ignored him, refusing to believe such a shocking diagnosis and needing to draw her own conclusions she focused on the unpleasant task in hand. She took hold of Helena's left hand to check her pulse, the right, where she had touched the console, was just a mass of charred flesh. When that yielded nothing she moved onto breathing, also nothing. She began fumbling with the med kit, trying to hook up the defibrillator while her hands trembled uncontrollably. The Doctor reached out and took her wrist, steadying her hand. Looking her straight in the eye he said "She took the full force of the blast, there's nothing you can do for her now. She's gone."

xxxx

Raven 16 had taken its first casualty. Helena Lake's body was loaded onto the stretcher, two soldiers, Bedford and Selway, took either end and carried her down to the cargo bay. While not a pleasant scenario the death of crew members had been planned for, a special storage area, nicknamed the mausoleum, had been prepared where the deceased could be kept safely until their return to Earth, where proper funerary arrangements could be made.

Hugo sat alone in in the cargo bay, staring at the place where the body was stored. The shock of her death weighed heavily on his mind, they had been living in working on that ship for so long it was hard to believe she was gone, that even though they were only separated by a thin piece of metal he would never see her again. He ran his hand against the cold metal door, there were so may things he wished he could have said to her, none of which mattered now.

"Attention everyone," Jack's voice boomed out, "Until further notice all crew are confined to their quarters, repeat all crew are confined to their quarters."

"Good bye Helena." Hugo muttered as, reluctantly he left the cargo bay.

xxxx

"So you're sure it was deliberate?" Jack asked.

"Nothing about this situation could have been accidental," replied the Doctor, "The missiles were a precision shot and whoever set it up had the foresight to disable the kill switch. As for that trick with the hypercharger, there are too many safe guards in place for it to kill someone on its own."

"So, hypothetically speaking, how would you have done it?"

The Doctor paused and took a deep breath, "The missiles normally receive their coordinates from the targeting computer right before the launch, but theoretically if I could get into the missile bay I could program them by hand and while I was there shut down the receiver so the destruct signal wouldn't work. You've been stationary for so long that this would actually be pretty straightforward. But whoever your saboteur is it's the hypercharger that really concerns me. If I was trying to sabotage it I would have disabled it from the engine room or vented the excess energy out into space, but instead they fed it back into the cockpit and that to me says malicious intent."

Jack nodded, for a captain this was the worst case scenario, the revelation that one of his crew as a cold blooded killer, made worse by the fact he had no idea which one, "Doctor I'd like you to take a look at the personnel files, see who you think has the skills to pull off such an act."

"Shouldn't you be out there, talking to your crew?"

"I've been with them ten years and I barely know any of them. Before today I didn't think any of them were capable of doing something like this. Right now Doctor you're the only one on this ship I trust."

"Oh, you can trust Haze."

"If she's with you I suppose I can," Jack said, then added, "Sorry, I meant no offense."

"Don't worry, none taken." Haze replied, having been sitting quietly the whole time.

The Doctor took the captain's chair, flicking through data-discs as he began to scrutinise each crew member, looking for some clue as to who was responsible.

"You're one short," Haze observed, "There's discs for a crew of ten, and that includes the captain, but there was definitely ten people out there so there's eleven of you in total."

"Well spotted," Jack said, "The eleventh man is Joseph Rennes, he wasn't part of the original mission, we found him about three years ago."

"I'm sorry," Haze said, surprised, "You found him?"

"We'd picked up a distress call and followed it to cargo ship, stranded in deep space after it's hyperdrive malfunctioned. Joseph had been the only survivor having spent years alone, and since we were so far from Earth he was forced to remain aboard for the duration of our mission. Initially he was a bit shell-shocked, but he had integrated thanks largely to Dr Goscinny's counselling. Gordon even took him on as an assistant. We were able to pull the crew records from the freighter's central computer though, I have his service record on the system."

"Surely he's the most likely suspect then? Presumably everyone else had to get through some kind of selection process, thorough background checks and this guy just walks aboard? He's the one, I'd put money on it."

"Could be, could be," the Doctor muttered, "But I wouldn't wager too much at this point. I don't know about Rennes, but according to these files there's only two crew members who have the technical skill required for what we saw, chief engineer Gordon O'Rourke and computer specialist Caroline Nash. Gordon seems like a pretty upright an moral sort of fellow, at least based on what it says about him here, but Caroline seems a little more iffy. For one she's seriously overqualified, I can see you wanting the best, but come on, she invented half of these systems. Then there's the extended leave of absence, she was off work for more six months prior to her selection for the Raven project and no reason is given. She's definitely hiding something."

"Hardly conclusive though." replied Haze.

"True and I'm not ruling out anyone at this point. In my experience it's much easier to hide skills than it is to fake them. Any one of the soldiers could have picked up technical skills outside of their military training. The first rule in a situation like this is to suspect everyone, of course the second rule is to get out while you can, but I always ignore that one. Then again I think the third rule is something about not starting fires, which isn't all that relevant here..."

"Doctor!" Haze snapped.

Sorry," he then turned to Jack, "Right then Captain, that's the situation, what are your orders."

"We're stranded in unfriendly territory with a killer on board. Finding who's responsible is our top priority, but getting moving again is a pretty close second. I'm going to release Gordon and Rennes to work on the engines, Doctor, go with them, offer to lend a hand and find out what you can. I'll talk to Caroline and use my natural charm to find out what she's hiding, and Haze, talk to Clem, she's been performing continual psych evaluations of the crew, if anyone can offer us any insight it's her," Jack paused, "One more thing, my first priority is to this ship and it's crew. I will try and save both if I can, but we fired the first shot and I don't want this incident escalating. If things get too hot then I'm going to activate the self destruct, and with your permission Doctor, we use the TARDIS to get everyone to safety."

"OK, but only as a last resort, I'd rather not invite a killer aboard my ship."

With that the three left to take on their tasks.

xxxx

Dr Clemence Goscinny sat alone in her cabin, her head in her hands, her mind trying to sort out the mess that had just unfolded. She was in shock, that was obvious, even to her, but her conduct had been extremely unprofessional. Helena was clearly dead when she arrived, anyone could have seen that, the Doctor even told her so, so what was the point in even trying to save her?

Clem had been a doctor for nearly fifteen years, she had been sponsored through medical school by the armed forces and followed up her MD with field medic training. This was the only life she had known and yet she panicked at the first sign of a medical emergency. Ten years was a long time to go without seeing a body, or indeed a patient with anything more severe than a sprained ankle. Before the mission had departed they had discussed possible psychological effects of such a long time in deep space, cooped up with a small group of people for years on end and every effort was made to combat the negative effect. This was a scenario that had been discussed endless times, but Dr Goscinny had believed that by using reading material and practice techniques her instincts could stay sharp, but she had been wrong. Now Helena's body had placed into storage Clem fought to regain her composure. From that moment on she made a promise to herself, if the situation occurred she would be ready.

There was a knock at the door. She slowly rose to her feet, fully expecting to see Jack or AJ ready to give her a dressing down over the handling of the incident, instead it revealed the purple haired stranger.

"Hi, um... Haze wasn't it?" Clem began, unsure of what to make of the situation.

"That's right, mind if I come in?"

"Of course not, have a seat."

Haze looked around the cabin. Although it wasn't quite as nice or spacious as the Captain's it was still a huge step up from the confined cabins she had seen on the last spaceship she'd been on. Stylish plastic furniture filled the room and a sophisticated looking computer sat atop the desk, displaying what appeared to be a page from a medical textbook. One of the four walls was dominated by a giant screen, currently showing an image of vast green rolling hills.

Haze smiled, "Missing the outdoors?"

"A little yes."

"Same here, I grew up in Scotland, my family lived in Edinburgh but we always went out into the country for weekends. There's no way I could do what you've done, ten years in here I'd go crazy," then the seriousness of the situation returned to her, so she asked "How are you feeling?"

"Better."

"That's good. You seemed really upset earlier, were you and Helena close?"

"We got along, you pretty much have to here, the ship's far to small to nurse a grudge. But I liked her she was a nice person, had nerves of steel and a poker face like no one I've ever seen. I'll miss her."

"There's no easy way to say this," Haze sighed, "The Doctor believes, and Jack agrees with him, that there's no way any of this could have been an accident, the situation was designed to kill Helena. You know this crew better than anyone, is there anyone on board who you think could have done it?"

"No, in our time together there's never been anything more serious than a raised voice, let alone a threat of violence."

"What about Rennes?" having conducted many interviews in Haze usually avoided asking such a leading question, but in this case her suspicions were too strong to be ignored, and it was her first murder inquiry, "He's the only one of you that wasn't screened prior to the mission, and who knows what all that time aboard a derelict ship would do to a person?"

"No, he was a bit fragile when he came aboard but he's well adjusted now and he never seemed violent or unstable. It may have taken him a while to learn to trust us, but he never seemed to bare us any ill will, especially not Helena. Besides, we brought detailed files over from his ship, he doesn't have the skill to pull of something like this."

"Any chance they could have been tampered with?"

"No, Caroline went over them, they're genuine personnel files from his freighter."

"OK, lets look at this another way, there were ten of you aboard, it had to be one of you, do you have even the slightest suspicions over who it could be?"

"My opinions of the crew are formulated from both the psychological profiles and my interactions in the social settings, as limited as this has been in some cases. If I had to name a suspect it would have to be a soldiers, Kreigler. The other three were an existing military unit been serving together for years, but Kreigler's new, he was only assigned for this mission. He seems different somehow, he..."

But her words were cut off.

xxxx

Caroline's cabin had the basic shape and interior design were identical to those of Dr Goscinny's and indeed every other cabin aboard the ship. Each was decorated according to the taste of the inhabitant, in this case it was very sparse. Despite her vast fortune she had chosen to take very little with her, all but the most basic decorations and essential furniture adorned the cabin.

Captain Jack, sitting across the table from her, noted this. All the time they had been aboard this was the first time he had set foot in this cabin, or the cabin of any of the other crew members.

"So I'm a suspect then." Caroline said flatly, before Jack could even address her.

"Not one for small talk eh?"

"No."

"OK then, you're a suspect, everyone aboard is."

"What about your friends, the man and the girl that turned up out of nowhere right before the incident, are they suspects too? Are they locked up somewhere with Bedford and Selway putting their interrogator training to use?"

"The Doctor is assisting me with my inquiries."

"Are you even going to tell us who he is?"

"Right now he's the only one on board I can trust, which is more than can be said for you."

"Of course he is. I'm flattered you came to see me first though."

"Well you do have all the necessary skills."

"Oh Captain, you know what a girl wants to hear." she said mockingly.

"Did you do it?"

"Well if I did I wouldn't exactly admit to it would I?"

"Depends on why you did it?"

"Why do you think someone would?"

"I don't know."

"Oh dear, this isn't going very well is it, please tell me this isn't your first time."

Growing impatient Jack slapped a file onto the table, the paper copy of Caroline's profile, "I have no idea why you would want to attack an unknown alien race," he began angrily, "But then again there's a lot I don't know about you. I accepted you onto my ship in good faith, but there are some very suspicious gaps in this file."

"You're one to talk, there may be gaps in my file, but at least I have a one. I tried to look into you before we left, I found nothing. If you know all about me then you'll know how good I am, and if I can't find anything on you then either you don't exist or your file is so classified that only the five most important people in the Empire have access to it. And for so long this didn't bother me, I just thought if they trust you enough to put you in command that should be good enough, but right now it isn't. You say that everyone's a suspect, maybe when we're done here we should turn this around, ask you and the Doctor some pretty probing questions, how does that sound?"

But Jack didn't get a chance to answer.

xxxx

"Blimey, this really is a mess." the Doctor muttered as he helped Gordon strip away the remains of the hypercharger device.

The device itself was a miracle of engineering, it's very creation made the whole Raven project viable. That was the problem with deep space exploration, even with the hyperdrive running at maximum it would take you as many years to return home as it would to reach your destination in the first place. Not so with the hypercharger, it's use pushed the hyperdrive to work a hundred time more efficiently and reducing the return journey to a fraction of the time. There was a side effect of course, using it would burn out your engines and when it did run out of power you were left stranded wherever you happened to be. All you could do then is activate a distress beacon and wait for a rescue ship. But in this particular case the charger had burned out while providing the ship with no real benefit and leaving them stranded in unfriendly territory.

"I don't think it's as bad as it looks," said Gordon, standing back to survey the engines, "It's prolonged use that burns out the engines all we had was a quick flash. OK, so the hypercharger is buggered, but I reckon we can get the main engines, maybe even the hyperdrive going again."

"Good man. So what do you think caused it?"

"Hard to say," he replied, examining the hypercharger, "Could be a production fault I suppose, but these things are rigorously checked. Some kind of power surge maybe, but I inspected everything here recently. So that just leaves..."

"Sabotage?" Rennes finished Gordon's sentence as he trailed off, "But how?"

"That's what I'm here to find out. Mind if I take a look over this?" the Doctor asked as they moved the remains of the hypercharger to a nearby workbench. To help pass the time Gordon had turned a corner of the engine room into a workshop where he had several small projects on the go.

"Go ahead," Gordon replied, "We'll start working on the engines."

As the two engineers set to work the Doctor began to dismantle the hypercharger looking for some clue as to what caused the fatal malfunction. This was definitely the first time the casing had been off, there was no doubt about it and whatever was done to it was certainly not achieved by physically tampering with the circuitry. This would leave only one option, programming. It wouldn't have been easy, there were dozens of safeguards and fail-safes to get past, but whoever was responsible would have had years to work on it, surly that was enough time.

"Find anything?" the Doctor looked up to see Rennes standing over his shoulder.

"Not yet, shouldn't you be helping Gordon?"

"Oh he's fine. I don't really do much anyway, juts hand him tools and hold the light. This was only ever supposed to be a one man job, he never needed an assistant. I'm more a charity case than anything else, he doesn't actually need me."

"Oh don't say that, it's always good to have another pair of hand, another pair of eyes."

"You always travel with your assistant, surely you must have recruited her for a reason."

"Yes, but probably not for the reasons you're thinking. She's not here because she's an engineer or a pilot or an astrophysicist. Well OK, technically she is an astrophysicist, but that's not why I invited her to join me. No, she's here because she wanted to see the wonders of the universe, to learn the truth about what was really out there. That desire is what drives us, it's more important than any qualifications. That and the ability to see what ordinary people miss."

"Speaking of which, what is that?" Rennes asked, reaching into the hypercharger.

"What?" the Doctor, replied, quickly pulling Rennes's hand out of the device, "I don't see...Oh"

A high pitched whine filled the air, something had just come to life.

"Down!" yelled the Doctor, knocking Rennes to the floor.

A blinding flash filled the room. Gordon, who had begun to turn as the Doctor called out caught the full force of it, he collapsed to the floor screaming and clutching his eyes. After only a few seconds it was all over. The Doctor rushed to attend to the wounded man, but after a quick examination he concluded that there was nothing he could do here, best get him to the infirmary.

"Come on, up you get," he said, pulling Gordon to his feet, "Will you switch that off?" he added irritably to the alarm bells that were now ringing.

Rennes, shook his head, "Those aren't us."

xxxx

All three interviews were uninterrupted by the same alarm sound, there was a fire aboard the ship. Jack was first on the scene, extinguisher in hand. As the foam spray began to douse the flames the ominous truth hit him about the source of the fire. It was coming from the weapons locker, the fire was being fueled by the power cells of the blasters and assault riffles, and if he didn't get it under control soon there was a danger of the grenades contributing to the inferno. Footsteps thudded along the corridor, the alarm was drawing other to the scene. More jets of foam joined the stream and after a few tense moments the fire was under control.

Jack surveyed the situation. The two additional fire extinguishers had been wielded by Bedford and Selway, like good soldiers they had immediately rushed into action when the alarm had sounded. Kreigler had arrived moments later, he was fast, but not fast enough to be useful. But the fourth soldier lay sprawled on the floor having taken the full force of the explosion that led to the fire. Andrew James Warren, Jack's second in command, was dead.

xxxx

"So how's this for a theory: AJ sets off the missiles, sabotages the hypercharger and then tried to rig the weapons locker to explode, but it backfires and he's killed in his own inferno? What other reason could he have for disobeying orders and wondering round the ship?"

Once again Haze and Jack sat in the captain's quarters, chewing over the results of their respective interviews.

"Possible," Jack replied, "But it would be all too convenient and never really explains why."

"Nice try, but I don't think so," the both jumped as the Doctor entered the room, "You see, AJ's a soldier, there's a dangerous individual aboard this ship so naturally he goes for his gun, which safely locked away and he's the only one, other than yourself Jack, with access. No, I don't think he's responsible for what's been happening, he was just trying to arm himself and he fell into our killer's latest trap."

Haze nodded, "Makes sense, but all that does is eliminate one suspect from the pool, we're still no closer to catching the psycho who did this."

"Well, we're two suspects down, after what happened in the engine room there's no way Gordon was behind this."

"How is he?" Jack asked.

"There's nothing more I can do for him here, I've done all I can for the burns and the pain, but this is a man in desperate need of new eyeballs. For now he's totally blind."

"What exactly did happen in there?"

The Doctor quickly but fully recounted what happened with Gordon.

"Rennes," Haze said as soon as he'd finished, "All this happened after he touched the device, it has to be him."

"No, it was a discharge of residual energy, so unless he's capable of generating power surges like some kind of human battery there's nothing he could really have done."

"Fine, so where does this leave us with regards to the rest of our suspects? Dr Goscinny seemed to think that one of the soldiers, that Kreigler guy, was most likely ones to be behind this."

"I'm not done with Caroline yet," Jack added, "I know she's hiding something. I wouldn't be surprised if..."

His words were cut off by a buzzing noise, the intercom on his desk. Reaching over he flicked the switch and said "Go ahead."

"Captain,"said the voice on the other end, "It's Hugo, I think we have a serious problem."

"We have many serious problems Hugo, care to a a little more specific?"

"I've been trying to take my mind of things, off Helena so I've been going over the most recent set of communications we intercepted from Velitrax."

"Get to the point Hugo."

"There's a set of what appear to be numbers repeated numerous times in recent transmissions, I think they're co-ordinates and I've cross referenced them with some charts I intercepted earlier, and the outcome isn't good."

"What are they?" Jack asked, but a feeling of dread was building inside of him, he knew what was coming.

"They're us sir, those co-ordinates are our position. They've found us."

End of Part 2


	3. Chapter 3

The Uncharted Dark

By Vanya

Part 3

"...They've found us"

There was silence as Hugo's words hung ominously in the air. It was inevitable of course, an attack like that was always going to provoke a response but each person in the room had hoped that they would have more time.

"Our engineer's incapacitated," Jack said, "Doctor, you're our only hope of getting moving again, what do you need?"

The Doctor paused for a moment, "Gordon was optimistic but it's not going to be easy. I'm not sure if there's anything else we can do from in here, the only option left is to work on the engines from the outside."

The Captain nodded, "We're equipped with spacesuits and the soldiers all are have zero gravity training."

"Good, I'll need one or two to assist me."

"You're kidding right?" Haze exclaimed. "You want to go out and spacewalk with a potential killer?"

"I don't have a choice," the Doctor replied, placing a calming hand on her shoulder, "time's running out and this is the only way we can get the ship running. Besides, this might be a good way to flush them out. If they try to make a move out there I'll be ready."

xxxx

Sergeant Arnold Bedford (not that the rank held much meaning any more) paced back and forth in his quarters. The silence was agitating him. Once the unhappy chore of storing AJ's body had been completed the crew had once again been ordered back to their quarters to await further instructions. He didn't know what was going on but what he'd seen didn't bode well. Two fatal accidents and an accidental weapons discharge could barely be coincidence, there had to be something more to the situation.

When his pacing didn't help he sighed and collapsed into a chair. He had served his time on the front line, he had seen friends and comrades fall before but this was different. AJ was a good man and a brave soldier, he deserved better than to die in a stupid accident. Although Bedford had doubts that it had been an accident, the situations felt more like some kind of cowardly trap. Even a day ago the thought that someone on that ship could be a killer was ridiculous but two dead bodies said otherwise.

He'd been serving with AJ and Selway from the start of their respective careers, working their way up the ranks together. The fourth man, Kreigler, had only joined their unit for the current mission. Even though he didn't have their history and their years of shared service he was still one of them.

When Captain Jordan had been killed they had all expected AJ to get a promotion and command of the unit, instead it was handed to a stranger, the man they had found floating in space. As if adding insult to injury they had all been assigned to the Raven project. Command had made it sound like some kind of honour but they had all felt as if they were being swept aside. And now Jack was barely maintaining order so they had to stick together, take care of themselves.

"Bedford, Selway," Jack's voice boomed out over the intercom, "Report to airlock two immediately, you're going outside."

Bedford rose to his feet, S_ome action at last_.

xxxx

"OK men, here's the situation," the two soldiers suited up Jack briefed them on their task. "As you're probably aware the hypercharger device malfunctioned when we tried to use it causing serious damage to the engines. In addition our chief engineer was blinded, which means there's only one man on board qualified to repair the engines, the Doctor. From this point on you're to follow his orders to the letter."

"Sir, yes sir," they replied in unison.

"Oh stop saluting," the Doctor said as he stepped forward, in response both men dropped their arms. "Right then, I'm about to attempt a pretty impressive feat of engineering to get this ship moving again and I need your assistance. Basically we space walk out, I fix the engines, and we go back, easy. For you anyway, my job's actually pretty complicated. Any questions? No, good."

The Doctor removed his pinstripe jacket and handed it to Jack before stepping into his spacesuit. Once humans actually got the hang of space travel the suits themselves almost stopped changing. They were all human shaped with a helmet and an oxygen supply and once you got rid of the unnecessary bulk there was very little you could actually do with it. The biggest difference between eras of space travel, one the Doctor could never understand, was the colour of the suits and right now the fashion seemed to be silver.

With their helmets tucked under their arms the three men walked towards the airlock the Doctor turned back and said, "I am just going outside and may be some time.."

xxxx

As the air slowly drained away from the airlock the Doctor and the soldiers performed a last minute check on the seals, doubly thorough as a climate of mistrust and the threat of sabotage hung over them.

"You do this sort of thing often?" the Doctor asked idly.

"No," the response came from Selway.

"Chatty bunch aren't you," muttered the Doctor.

The light above the external door turned green, signalling that it was time to leave.

"OK then men," he added brightly, "Allons-y."

xxxx

The Doctor edged his way across the outside of the ship along the walkway that had been constructed for this very purpose. His hand gripped the safety rail and his magnetised boots thudded heavily against the narrow platform. Back in the Captain's cabin everything had seemed so easy but now he was spacewalking of with a pair of soldiers, one or both of whom could be a psychotic killer, things seemed less straightforward. Focusing on his target, the massive engines at the aft of the ship he edged further along, _No time for second thoughts now._

xxxx

Silence.

Hugo tried again, searching all known frequencies, listening for something, anything coming from Velitrax.

Nothing.

Even though he was working from his cabin the communications officer was feeling oddly focused. Ever since his student days he had attempted to keep his work and recreations spaces separate to avoid distraction. A lot of effort had gone into ensuring the crew would be comfortable and entertained on their prolonged mission but Hugo had never found this conducive to a productive working environment. Instead he had always preferred to work from the Raven's communication hub, located beneath the antenna array at the top of the ship. Ever since they had discovered Velitrax that was where he had spent most of his time, it was only the current crisis and the Captain's orders that were forcing him to work from his quarters. Having a task to focus on was providing a welcome distraction but the silence made him uneasy. It hadn't been long since he'd intercepted their coordinates and now he was starved for data. The situation made perfect sense of course, on Earth radio silence would be standard procedure at a time like that and he was sure this was true for Velitrax as well. They had been attacked, unprovoked, by an unknown, unseen enemy and were probably worried about their communications being intercepted and rightly so as that was exactly what he was doing. He let out an angry grunt and half-heartedly kicked his desk. He wasn't a soldier with a great tactical mind, he wasn't an engineer who would fix the ship and he wasn't even a diplomat who could resolve the situation. He was the communications officer, all he could do was listen and interpret. And now he had lost his ability to do that he felt completely useless.

He looked up from his station in response to a knock on the door. He quickly jumped to his feet and stepped over to open it, expecting Jack to be there, ready to question him. He was surprised when the door slip open to reveal Clem standing there holding two ration trays.

"Hi," she said, smiling warmly, "mind if I come in?"

"Of course, have a seat," he said, beckoning her inside.

"I brought dinner," she added as she sat down.

"Thank you," Hugo pulled the lid off his tray, filling the cabin with the aroma of steak in peppercorn sauce. In the interests of crew welfare startling advances had been made in the area of food science. Gourmet meals could be made, stored and reconstituted with almost no loss in quality.

"I thought we were all confined to quarters," Hugo said between mouthfuls, "or at last the infirmary. Didn't realise Jack had given you free reign of the ship."

"Oh yes," Clem looked up from her own tray, which contained seafood pasta, "you can't keep your medic locked up at a time like this."

Hugo shook his head, "You're lying."

"No, really, I..."

"Look, I didn't just study linguistics, I studied communication and everything that goes with it, I can read every expression, every twitch and your face tells me you're lying."

"Is that how you did so well at the poker last time?"

"Yes."

"Why didn't you win then?"

"I can spot a bluff, but I have to do the best with the cards I have. You're changing the subject, why are you here? And how are you here?"

"OK, I broke out, I got Caroline to show me how to do it months ago."

"But why?"

"I came to check on you, see how you're holding up. I was worried about you."

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not and if I believed you were I'd be even more concerned. Helena's dead Hugo, so is AJ. Somebody on board killed them, sabotaged the ship, fired on that planet and god only knows what else. I appreciate the brave face but it isn't necessary, especially while you're with me. If you're not saddened and scared by this then there's something seriously wrong with you."

"I haven't got time for all that now."

Clem paused in surprise, slowly repeating Hugo's words back to him, "You haven't got time for all that?"

"No. Don't you see Clem, I have one job on this ship, just one job. I monitor communications, I have to be able to do that, the Captain i_needs/i_ me to be able to do that. I haven't got time to be depressed or scared because I have to do my job."

Clem just sat there, in shock from what she had heard. Hugo had been recruited straight out of university, he was the youngest member of the crew and didn't have the same military or even life experience as the rest of them. She'd expected him to take the current events badly but she never dreamed that he would shut down emotionally.

"Hugo," she said, gently reaching over and touching his arm, "It's OK to grieve, no one's going to think any less of you. You don't have to prove anything."

He angrily withdrew his arm, "You don't have to worry about me, I'm not a liability and I'm not going to have a breakdown at an inconvenient moment."

"It's not like that..."

"Yes it is. I see the way you all treat me, like I'm the baby of the crew. I don't need you to take care of me."

"I know that Hugo, I was worried..."

"Well don't be, I'm fine. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work."

"But..."

Good bye Clem, I have work to do."

Hugo rose to his feet and began to push Clem towards the door. With her safely in the corridor he returned to his desk and once again began to scrutinise the silence.

xxxx

"OK men, hold position," the Doctor' voice crackled over the radio, "We're here."

The three spacesuited figures came to a halt at the aft of the Raven. From his vantage point the Doctor surveyed the planet, straining his eyes trying to make out any signs of mobilisation in the darkness. Nothing seemed to be moving but he knew they were on borrowed time. Sooner rather than later the forces of Velitrax, whoever they were, were going to retaliate with all of their might. They needed to get the ship moving again and they needed to do it quickly. This wasn't going to be easy.

"Right, let's get to work," he continued, "Selway my good man, hand me the replacement power couplings and my screwdriver."

xxxx

_He's coping_, Clem told herself as she walked slowly back toward the infirmary, a_t least that's something_. She wasn't happy with his chosen method but in this time of crisis they all had to get through it however they could.

Gordon was lying where she had left him, still unconscious with his eyes bandaged and Rennes sitting attentively at his bedside.

"There's nothing more you can do for him now Joseph," Clem said gently, "You're better off going back to your cabin."

"Are you trying to keep me out the way?" he replied, smiling feebly as he tried to make a joke out of it.

"Of course not."

"It's OK, I know where I fit in on this ship. I'm not even supposed to be here anyway, I just needed to make sure Gordon was OK."

"Take care," Clem called after him as he left. Once he was gone she began her duties checking Gordon's vitals and changing his dressings.

xxxx

"Hey, watch it!"

"Sorry."

Almost as soon as he was out of the infirmary Rennes almost collided with Caroline walking briskly down the corridor.

"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" He asked.

"I need to see the Captain," she replied curtly.

"Why?"

"None of your business. Now, out of my way."

Rennes stood there, stunned as Caroline continued on.

xxxx

"You shouldn't be out here alone."

Haze jumped at the voice behind her. She spun round to find herself face to face with Kreigler, the fourth soldier.

"I'm fine, I can take care of myself."

"Of course you can. AJ, Helena, Gordon, they could all take care of themselves too, we can all take care of ourselves out here."

"What do you want? And does the phrase 'confined to quarters' actually mean anything on this ship? You all seem to be wandering around."

"I just want what you want, to find out who's behind this. As for not staying put, I'm sorry but I don't agree with Jack on this one. If I can get out anyone can, we're just sitting ducks if we stay in out quarters like good little soldier boys."

"You're no safer out here you know."

"Maybe, but at least I'm not waiting for death to come to me."

"So where are you heading?"

"Engine room, I hear there was an incident there. I've already examined the weapons locker and I was on the flight deck when Helena was killed, if the killer left any kind of clue as to their identity that's where I'll find it."

"There's somewhere else you know, another part of the ship you haven't checked yet."

"Oh?"

"Weapons bay, the Doctor thinks that whoever's behind this must have manually reprogrammed the missile, that's where he'd have to work from."

Kreigler nodded, "Makes sense."

"Well, are you going to tell me where that is?"

xxxx

Kreigler knelt down and began to to unscrew the wingnuts that an access panel in place. Haze looked on and began to contemplate the situation. _Two possibilities, _she thought, _e__ither he's the killer or he isn't. If he is, best outcome: he tries to kill me, I escape and he's unmasked. Worst outcome: he kills me. If he isn't, best outcome: we find incriminating evidence of the real killer. Worst outcome: we find nothing. _Putting things in those terms she suddenly realised that maybe inviting Kreigler into the bowels of the ship hadn't been the smartest move, doubly so as neither the Doctor nor Jack knew she would be down there. It wasn't too late to back out, but one way or another she was going to get some answers. Besides, someone who wore such a loud shirt couldn't be a psychotic killer could he?

Haze shook the doubts from her mind as Kreigler gestured to the open access panel and said "Ladies first."

xxxx

Jack looked up startled as the door to his cabin slid open, revealing the figure of Caroline Nash in the doorway.

"You were confined to quarters..." he began.

"Oh please, you think I couldn't leave any time I wanted? I'm insulted."

"What do you want, this really isn't a good time for a chat."

"I know, I realise how serious the situation is here. After what just happened with AJ I think it's best to come clean."

"So this is a confession?" suddenly she had Jack's full attention.

"Yes, but not for what you think, it's time you knew the truth so you don't waste any more time an me and find the person really responsible."

"Go on."

Caroline took a deep breath and said, "Industrial espionage. There was a six month gap in my records because I was in a government prison brought up on charges of industrial espionage."

"Right," Jack said sceptically, "you expect me to believe you were selling secrets? You were estimated to be one of the richest people in the Empire, was what Daltronics were paying you really not enough?"

"I wasn't selling them," she replied hanging her head in shame, "I was buying them. While I was still at Cambridge I was branded a genius, head hunted for a top level job as soon as I graduated..."

"That much is in your file."

"Well what it didn't say was after a few years I hit a dry spell. My first breakthroughs had made the company and myself a small fortune and there was huge pressure for the next one. But when the ideas didn't come I resorted to desperate measures, paying a mercenary to steal from one of our rivals, prototypes, blueprint that sort of thing. Of course when my product hit the market it was better in every way, but still, the basis wasn't mine. After that I should have stopped, but I got lazy, and then I got sloppy..."

"And you got caught," Jack said, picking up where her voice trailed off.

Caroline shuddered as she recalled her arrest. The investigation had been going on for a while, agents had been in and out for months searching her home, her office, her lab. But she was smarter than them, or so she thought, and she had covered her tracks and vowed to never delve into these shady dealing again. But somehow they found their proof and one night they came for her, there was nothing she could do. For fear of their part in the whole affair Daltronics's CEO, her boss and someone who she may even have called a friend, cooperated fully, agreeing to say nothing about her illegal detention and helping to circulate the cover story.

"They kept details of my arrest quiet, but I spent six months in a detention facility. During that time I was visited by General Emerson."

Jack nodded, Emerson had been instrumental to his own recruitment the project. He hadn't been able to find out much but Emerson's name had become synonymous with clandestine operations. He always had a knack for finding the right people for the job and finding ways to make them comply with his wishes.

"He offered me a choice," Caroline continued, "I could either spend years in prison and lose everything, or I could accept a placement on the Raven project and reclaim my money and live in enforced retirement when I returned. It was a no brainer really. So here I am."

"I see," Jack contemplated her story. It was certainly plausible, more plausible than the idea of her being a saboteur and a murder at any rate. There was one more avenue that he wanted to pursue, "When Emerson recruited you did he ask you to make anything for him? Maybe a device or a computer program that could be responsible for what's happening?"

"No he didn't, sorry."

"Did he say anything else?" Jack was getting desperate. "Any other orders, anything about wanting to start a war."

"No, I'm sorry Jack I really am, but that's all I know."

Jack's slumped forward, his head resting in his hands, "Thank you," he said finally, "You can go now."

As she stepped through the door she turned back for a moment, "I'm sorry I didn't come forward sooner. It was the shame of it I suppose."

xxxx

Walking back to her cabin Caroline felt like a weight had been lifted, but at the same time she felt apprehensive. There was still something going on, she didn't know what it was and she didn't like it. As she stepped through her doorway she noticed the room was bathed in a low light of her desk lamp and a figure sat in front of her computer terminal.

"What are you doing here?" she asked harshly.

"I heard what you said to Jack," the figure replied, "That was a very foolish thing to do. You were providing a nice little diversion but now I don't need you any more."

xxxx

"Almost there." The Doctor triumphantly.

With the threat of impending death from Velitrax looming over them the Doctor, along with Bedford and Selway, had been working at record speed to complete the repairs. The sonic screwdriver was clutched in his bulky gloved hand as he began the final task of putting everything back. With all the components either replaced or rerouted all that remained was making sure the ship was sealed up again.

"Rear panel please."

Bedford handed over the final piece which he had been patiently holding the entire operation. He had to admit, the Doctor had done a good job. If he did what he said he would do then they were getting closer to getting away.

"OK, excellent work people," the Doctor said finally. "Time to head back in and fire them up."

Taking a moment to admire his handiwork he ran his hand over the engines, recoiling with horror as he felt them vibrate, something was very wrong.

xxxx

This wasn't the first time Haze had been inside the bowels of a spaceship, when travelling with the Doctor every trip ended up going somewhere that should be off limits. Danger with the chance of death were nothing new either but being in a confined space with someone who maybe a psychotic killer was an exciting first for her.

"Chivalry is all very well," she called back over her shoulder, "but maybe you should have gone first, I have no idea where I'm going."

They on their hands and knees, crawling through a duct towards the missile launchers. Haze slipped through easily, aided by her small stature, while Kreigler struggled along behind her.

"Keep going straight ahead," the soldier replied loudly, "don't deviate for anything."

Soon they found the way blocked by a metal grille. "Here," Kreigler said, sliding his penknife forward, "use this."

Haze flicked out the screwdriver attachment and raised her hand towards the corner of the panel. But as she made contact with the head of the screw the grille wobbled then fell forward and clattered noisily to the floor. With the barrier out if the way she tumbled out, followed shortly by Kreigler.

"Interesting," he muttered, picking up the grille and examining the edges, "the screws seem to have been sheered, maybe with and arc welder. Seems a bit odd."

"Maybe he just was in a hurry?"

"The hypercharger alone would have taken a long time to set up, and sabotaging the weapons locker and reprogramming the missile would be no easy feat either. The person responsible could have set all this up months, maybe years in advance and yet didn't have time to undo a couple of screws?"

"So if it's not time then it's convenience? He doesn't have a screwdriver but he happens to have a welding tool in his pocket so he uses that instead?"

Kreigler contemplated it for a second seemed unlikely, but it was the only solution that fitted the evidence.

"You know," Haze continued, "this does fit. the Doctor said that the hypercharger hadn't been physically tampered with..."

"... And neither had the weapons locker."

"So we're dealing with someone who can sabotage some of the most sophisticated pieces of equipment in the galaxy without a trace and yet is stuck when confronted with a couple of screws?"

"So it would seem."

"Weird."

Having learned all he could from it Kreigler discarded the grille and focused his attention in the rest of the room. It was small, not really designed to hold people so Kreigler had to stoop slightly as he moved round. They were illuminated by the dull glow of a red light, casting ominous shadows all around. The centrepiece was the launch mechanism, two missiles sat in parallel chutes ready to go and a whole rack of warheads were behind them waiting to be loaded. As Kreigler studied the racks Haze became more intrigued by his movements, his earlier deductions and the way he investigated reminded her less of other soldier she's met and more of the Doctor.

"Who are you?" she said at last as Kreigler moved on to study a computer terminal which had been installed for diagnostic purposes.

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, it's obvious you're more than just a soldier, you have a bigger role here."

"I don't know what..."

He was cut off as the ship lurched forward.

"What was that?" Haze asked, grabbing hold of a missile to steady herself.

"Engines firing."

"That was quick, I didn't think the Doctor was back in yet."

"I don't think he was." Kreigler replied, consulting the terminal.

Turning pale Haze turned and dived back into the duct.

xxxx

"Oh that's not good," the Doctor muttered, before raising his voice to yell, "Move!"

He quickly powered down his boots and with a blast of compressed air from his suit he pushed himself straight upwards. Bedford and Selway responded moments later, but too slowly. As they each tried to move sideways they were bit by the wave of energy from the engine coming to life. The suits were never designed to withstand such a blast, oxygen tanks ruptures, helmets shattered, cabals snapped and the two bodies floated off into the never ending blackness of space.

xxxx

Stepping over Caroline's body and out of her cabin the killer strode down the corridor of the Raven._ Time to move things along,_ he thought. Like the rest of the crew had had become board of waiting, he had his own job to do and was happy to finally be doing it.

Standing in front of the Captain's quarters he raised his hand and ran it over the door controls, which responded to his touch and slid aside. Jack rose from his desk in reaction to his intruder, opening his mouth to protest. Lightning crackled between the killer's fingers and bolt of energy shot from his hand, striking Jack square in the chest, carrying him off his feet and slamming him into the wall. The Captain collapsed to the floor, a large smoking hole in his chest. Satisfied the killer turned and left, the door sliding shut behind him.

xxxx

Her heart pounding and her mind racing Haze crawled through the duct system as fast as she could go, she had no idea what to do when she got out the other end, but she had to do something. How do you get a stranded man back inside the ship? Would he even still be alive?But for the moment she focused her energy on getting to the Doctor.

xxxx

The Doctor's body jerked as his safety line reached the end of its tether. He looked down helplessly at the two soldiers as they drifted further and further away from the ship. His own suit was badly damaged, he was alive for now, but everything would only hold together for so long. Hand over hand he began to pull himself back toward the ship and behind him the sonic screwdriver floated away.

The airlock drew closer and closer, the outer door still open, ready for the return of the three who went out. With one final effort the Doctor hauled himself inside and was roughly pulled to the floor as the artificial gravity kicked in. With his last ounce of strength he reached up and pressed the button to seal the airlock door then allowed himself to limply lie on the cold hard floor.

xxxx

"Doctor!" Haze called out, running to the airlock. She relieved to see him inside but her initial relief was replaced with a wave of concern as she stared at his unmoving body.

"Come on, come on," she muttered as she hammered on the 'open' button. After what felt like forever the door slid open revealing the Doctor sprawled on the floor. She knelt down by his unconscious body, her hands trembling as she undid the seals on his space suit.

"Clem!" she yelled loudly, hoping the intercom would pick her up. "I needed a medic in here now!"

The Doctor gasped as his helmet was slowly lifted off, gulping down his first lungful of air.

"Dead," he muttered. "They're both dead."

"Oh god, what happened?"

"I failed them, I failed them all, I failed you."

"No, don't talk like that. Come one, Clem will be here in a minute, we'll get you to medical and then work on the next plan OK?"

The Doctor was about to answer, but his were cut off by a metallic clang. At once they both looked round to see the airlock door had slid shut. Haze leapt to her feet, dashing over to the door. Once again she pressed the open button aggressively but with no effect.

"Hey!" she yelled, abandoning the control panel and hammering on the glass. "Hey! We're still in here!"

A moment later Clem appeared on the other side. Haze watched, worriedly, as she went through the same motions of working the door controls but with no success. Dr Goscinny's lips moved but Haze was unable to make out what she was saying, realising at that moment the futility of her shouting.

The silence was broken by a crackling voice over the intercom, "You won't escape this time."

Haze, looked around, panicked as an ominous hissing sound filled the room, they were venting air...

End of Part 3


	4. Chapter 4

The Uncharted Dark

By Vanya

Part 4

"You won't escape this time." The words echoed hollowly through the airlock.

Haze panicked as she looked round the room. The air was rushing out fast and there was no way of stopping it, no hole that could be blocked and no switch that could be turned off. Right now there was only one way out and he was lying barley conscious on the floor.

Dropping to her knees she delivered a sharp slap to the Doctor's face followed by a few more.

"Wake up!" she said loudly. "You need to get us out of here. Do some sonic trickery, rewire the controls or something."

Groggily the Doctor muttered something in response. He tried to get to his feet but collapsed to the floor.

Things were getting desperate. Haze could feel the lack of oxygen getting to her; darkness began to fill her vision and a wave of dizziness swept over her. As she struggled to keep her balance she noticed something. Silence. The hissing had stopped.

xxxx

Jack slumped backwards into his chair while the energy burns on his chest rapidly stitched up and disappeared. On his screen the words 'Bulkhead Sealed' flashed up and outside the ship a series of plates slid into place covering all vulnerable points, the windows and airlocks. He glanced back at the window in his own cabin and was reassured at the sight of dull metal rather than the view of the planet.

As he had struggled to his feet after the attack he had seen the warning of air venting and hoped that his solution had been quick enough to save the Doctor. Either way he had an advantage now. The killer had made a huge mistake coming after him and now Jack Harkness knew who he was dealing with.

xxxx

The air may have stopped escaping but nothing was coming in to replace it and suffocation was still an imminent danger. Haze's eye was caught by movement as a new figure appeared at the airlock door. From somewhere on his person Kreigler drew a small silver pistol. He aimed for a moment and fired. The glass of the airlock door shattered and Haze let herself sink to the floor as they were hit by a wave of blessed air.

As soon as the door was down Clem rushed in deliberating for a second as to which patient to tend to. She knelt next to Haze, who in response spluttered, "I'm fine, help the Doctor." As she set to work tending to the fallen Time Lord Haze was pulled to her feet by Kreigler.

"Nice shooting," she said. "Thanks for the rescue."

"Don't mention it."

"Where did you get the weapon though? I thought all your armaments were destroyed when the weapons locker went up." She paused, time to play a hunch, "And it doesn't exactly look standard issue."

Kreigler sighed, "No point hiding it any longer I suppose. You were right, I'm not a soldier, my military record was fabricated. I'm an operative with the security service, deep cover."

"What?" Clem exclaimed, one ear on the conversation.

"Here to start a war are you?" Haze asked

"Hardly, my assignment was Jack. He has great potential as an agent of the Empire, but no one was sure if he could be trusted. My orders were to assess him and keep him in line if necessary, then report back as to what posts he would be suited for. But once the killings started I've been running my own investigation."

"I would have thought a mission like that, ten years of babysitting, would be beneath a man of your talents." Haze said, still unconvinced.

Kreigler sighed, "This was going to be my last assignment. After a mission to Teerstkin Seven went bad and my partner was killed I tried to resign my commission, but High Command were less keen to let me go. Eventually I struck a deal with General Emerson, upon completion of this assignment I'd be released from service and be allowed to retire in peace with a full pension."

"Too many secrets on this ship," the Doctor said, slowly getting to his feet, "No wonder you couldn't find a killer among you, you're all hiding something. Who do you think it is then?"

"I'm not ready to share my findings just yet Doctor, but we do seem to be running out of suspects."

"I'm sorry and Bedford and Selway, I truly am."

"Do you need anything Doctor?" Haze asked, turning her attention away from Kerigler.

"No," he replied, "I'm fine."

"Good," she turned back to Clem and Kreigler. "Could you two excuse us for a moment, we need a private word."

"For now I think your cabin will be safer…." Kreigler began as they walked away.

"Well?" the Doctor asked after the soldier and the medic were gone.

"I think I know who the killer is."

"Really? Excellent work, which one is it?"

"I don't know."

"But you said..."

"Just before we started losing air the killer taunted us over the intercom. I didn't recognise the voice, but he said 'You won't escape this time'. Whoever is behind this seems to know everything that's going on aboard this ship, since you were down I think those words were aimed at me, I think he's tried to kill me before."

The Doctor paused, contemplating what Haze had just told her. "The assassin?"

"That would be my guess."

For her first trip to another word the Doctor had taken Haze to a moon orbiting the planet Safia to witness the first official treat between humans and another race. It was supposed to show humanity at its finest but the proceedings were disturbed by the assassination of the human ambassador. Haze had found herself framed for the crime and was almost expelled form a hanger by the real killer attempting to cover his tracks. The assassin himself was never caught. The Doctor worked out, too late, that he was also a time traveller seeking to alter history for his own ends and was able to escape by whatever means brought him there in the first place.

As the Doctor processed this thought he realised that if they were dealing with the same killer then there was only one person on board that it could be.

xxxx

His wounds almost healed and clutching an antique revolver Jack staggered down the corridor of the ship. It was time to end this once and for all.

xxxx

Glancing round Joseph Rennes stepped back into the medical bay. Slowly he approached the bed where Gordon lay.

"Don't worry, it'll all be over soon," he said soothingly. "You were always good to me, you actually made my time here tolerable, so I'll make this quick."

As he reached down and laid his hand over Gordon's heart a new voice cut through the silence, "Hold it right there."

Rennes spun round to find himself confronted by Jack, gun levelled at him.

"Step away from the bed," Jack continued.

Rennes looked quizzically at the Captain. "Didn't I kill you already?"

xxxx

"Rennes, it has to be," the Doctor said as they jogged down the corridor. "I'm still not sure exactly what our assassin was capable of but he seemed quite adept at slinging energy bolts around last time so he could easily generate enough power to activate the hypercharger and blind Gordon, probably trying to take me out at that point. He was able to move around the exhibition centre without attracting attention I'm guessing he had some pretty good fake credentials. He's from at least three thousand years in the future at this point whatever he could come up with is good enough to fool even the most brilliant computer specialist of today."

"All that leaves is the question of why he's doing it."

"And I'm sure I'll have the chance to explain all that to you later."

"Why not now?"

"Because I haven't figured it out yet and because we have to part ways. I'm going to find Jack and stop Rennes, not sure if it will be in that order though. You need to get everyone else to safety. Now we know who's behind this I want you to get everyone who isn't a killer into the TARDIS. He's already killed four people and attacked a the planet. If this is how he starts I don't want to be around for the encore."

xxxx

"I got better," Jack deadpanned.

"So it would seem, I don't suppose you'd tell me how you survived?" Rennes stared in awe at the Captain's chest, his clothing still bore the scorch marks of the blast but the skin underneath was unblemished. "It's just that I take a lot of pride in my work, if my victims get up and start walking round it reflects badly on me, y'know, as a professional."

"Trade secret, I'm sure you understand," Jack said, his gun still levelled in the strangest Mexican stand-off he had ever been in, both his opponent's hands were deadly weapons and he had both himself and a member of his crew covered.

"Of course I do, but no harm in asking eh?"

The change in Rennes was remarkable. Throughout his time on the Raven he had been quiet, morose even, and now it was as if he had just come alive. For the first time his eyes sparkled, albeit with malice and had become considerably more chatty from his usual laconic self.

"It appears we have a bit of a situation," Rennes continued.

"So it would seem, you've got us all on the verge of an intergalactic incident."

"Well I was talking about us Jack, but I suppose we have a bit of a situation out there as well. Can't be long before the Karaxians find us."

"Why are you trying to start a war?"

"War? Ha!" Rennes let out a harsh laugh. "War makes it sound you have a chance. Once they find you they will annihilate you, they'll decimate your military, take your planet, enslave your people. The only thing that's been stopping them is that they don't know about you, but once they find this ship that will be the end of the First Earth Empire!"

"Jack!" the Doctor's voice echoed up the corridor.

"In here Doctor!"

"Jack I've figured it out," his voice grew closer, "I know who the killer is it's..." The last word escaped his mouth as he entered sick bay.

"Rennes, yeah, I know."

"Oh right, how did you figure it out?"

"He shot me, you?"

"Good old fashioned detective work."

"Excuse me," Rennes injected irritably, "I am right here you know, and capable of destroying both of you."

"Right, sorry," the Doctor said. "Why are you trying to start a war?"

"We already did that that bit," said Jack, "He wants the Karaxians to destroy the Empire."

"That explains that, what about the ambassador?"

"What ambassador?"

"Cosgrove, the human ambassador to Safia," he turned to Rennes. "That was you wasn't it?"

The assassin smiled "Nice to be appreciated Doctor. Yeah, taking out Cosgrove, that was me. The Safians spent a lot of time protecting Earth in their first few steps into the wider universe, take away their influence and you have a human race that's more violent and more vulnerable. Of course, that whole job would have been easier without you interfering every step of the way."

"I try my best."

"It took me a while to figure you out, have to admit I didn't expect to run into another time traveller. Then imagine my surprise when you just show up here, the Doctor and his assistant just walking aboard this ship. After all this time you finally caught up with me."

"All this time?" a sly smile flicked across the Doctor's face. "All this time for you maybe, but not for me. How long have you been aboard this, three years wasn't it? Whereas after the Exhibition Centre Haze and I came straight here, well almost, we stopped off at a health spa first, nice to forget about the stress of the job every so often. You see that's the great thing about time travel, I know the short cuts."

"Maybe, but your short-cut allowed me to kill five crew members and countless Karaxians, so either you're bluffing or you're severely incompetent. And as much I'd like to believe the latter I've seen too much of your work. No, I think I just had the misfortune to of infiltrating the one ship where you're on first name terms with the captain. Out of curiosity how do you two know each other?"

"We met during World War Two," Jack said, "Funny story actually..."

"Oh we're all time travellers here, isn't that fun? Now, what are we going to do about this stand-off?"

xxxx

"Clem!" Haze called out, hammer on her cabin door with both fists. "Clem! We've got to move!"

The cabin door slid open, "Why, what's happened?"

"It's Rennes," Haze said breathlessly, "he's the killer."

"What?" Clem exclaimed. "How?"

"It's complicated and I'll explain later I promise, but for now we have to get out of here."

"And go where?"

"The TARDIS, the blue box in your cargo bay," she added when met with a blank look. "It's how we got here and right now it's the only safe place on the ship. Now come on, we need to find the others."

xxxx

Weapon in hand Kreigler drew closer to the door of the medical bay, drawn by the raised voices. So it was Rennes. After the discovery of Caroline's body he was the only logical suspect left and now there was no doubt in the agent's mind. But as he crept closer the conversation grew increasingly strange; Rennes and the Doctor were connected with the Cosgrove assassination? All three were all time travellers and this was somehow part of a greater scheme? Kreigler shook these distractions from his mind, the details could be sorted out later. Now he had to focus on the task in hand; to stop the killer and for the first time he had the element of surprise.

Stepping out into the doorway Kreigler quickly located his target and fired. The green laser bolt hit it's target, but shimmered round him, blocked by an invisible shield. In retaliation Rennes turned and let loose a blast of energy towards his new attacker. Jack leapt into action, throwing himself in front of Kreigler and taking the blast. As he fell to the floor Rennes dived forward, vaulting the table on which Gordon's body lay, firing at the Doctor as he did. The Doctor nimbly dodged to one side as the blast struck a medical cabinet, spraying glass and medical supplies across the room. Rennes reached the door, leaping over Jack's fallen body into the corridor. His hand flashed up behind him, activating the door panel and sealing the medical bay.

xxxx

"No answer!" Haze called out after a moment of banging on the door to Kreigler's cabin.

A few doors down Clem was also trying to rouse the crew, "Nothing from Caroline either," but instead of giving up she reached into her pocket and withdrew a key card. "Access to every cabin," she explained, "All medical officers were given it as a precaution."

The door slip open but the sight that greeted her was not a pleasant one. Caroline's body lay sprawled across the floor, a hideous scorch mark across her chest.

"It doesn't look like anything has malfunctioned." Haze appeared at Clem's shoulder and quickly surveyed the cabin, "And I've seen a wound like that before. Rennes did this himself, he must be getting desperate, we need to hurry."

Clem quickly ran the crew numbers in her head, "Five dead, one in the infirmary and who knows where Jack and your Doctor are. that just leaves Hugo and Kreigler," she quickly slipped Haze the access card. "Check Kreigler's cabin, I'll get Hugo."

xxxx

Kreigler had suddenly found himself face to face with the killer. It had all been over too quickly, the Captain was down the Doctor trapped and his own weapon was useless.

"Thanks for the distraction," Rennes said with a nasty smile. "Really appreciate it."

"You haven't got away yet," Kreigler replied.

He threw down his pistol, it no use to him now, and lunged at Rennes, aiming a precision blow at his throat. With lightning reflexes the killer blocked with one hand, and used the other to deliver a powerful gut punch. Kreigler doubled over, the wind knocked out of him by a blow accompanied by a massive electric shock.

Reasoning that there was nothing to be gained from fighting clean Kreigler swung his elbow at his opponent's groin. Rennes turned his body and the blow bounced harmlessly of his thigh. In response he punched downwards, sparks leapt from his fist as it connected with Kreigler's jaw. The soldier went down but was able to steady himself, ending up on all fours. Never one to miss an opportunity Rennes brought his foot up and kicked Kreigler hard in the ribs. The agent was down and the killer quickly dropped onto his chest, pinning him to the ground.

"I usually kill from a distance, I don't normally get up close and personal," he said as a nasty smile flicked across his face. "I'm going to enjoy this".

xxxx

Hugo looked up from his work station in response to a loud banging on the door. In no particular hurry he rose to his feet, expecting nothing more than another patronising visit from Clem or another member of the crew unnecessarily concerned for his well-being.

"What?" he asked irritably as his door slid open.

"Hugo! It's Rennes, he's the killer!" Clem explained quickly. "We have to get out of here!"

"What!" Hugo exclaimed, his brain rapidly trying to process everything that had just been thrown at him.

"No sign of Kreigler," Haze said as she appeared at Clem's side. "Come on, we need to get to the cargo bay."

"What about Gordon?" Clem asked as they began to move.

"I'll go back for him," Haze promised. "But for now my priority is to keep you two safe."

"No,"Clem protested, "I'm the ranking officer, you're not trained to deal with situations like this."

"Maybe not, but I have experience that no training can ever prepare you for."

"And what's that?

Haze smiled, "I travel with the Doctor."

And so they ran, three of the survivors sprinted though the ship and into the cargo bay. Haze whipped the key out of her pocket and quickly jammed it into the TARDIS door. As she ushered Clem and Hugo inside she wished she could have taken a moment to enjoy their surprised reaction, the impossibly large inside never failed to amaze people. But this was not the time. "I'll be back," she assured them before she locked the door and headed back though the ship.

xxxx

Jack's eyes snapped open and he drew his first breath. No matter how many times he died it never got any easier. He glanced around the medical bay and his brain quickly processed what happened.

"In your own time Captain," the Doctor said brightly, but didn't look up from his attempt to rewire the door controls.

"Can't you just sonic it?" Jack asked as he pulled to himself to his feet.

"No, dropped it on the spacewalk, I have to do this the old fashioned way."

Jack's eyes were suddenly drawn the bed he was using for support and the body that lay there.

"Gordon..." he began.

"I'm sorry Jack, he's dead," the Doctor replied, still fixated on the job in hand. "Rennes, if that is his real name, stopped his heart before the shooting started. Got it!"

The door slid open revealing the corridor and on the floor lay Kreigler's beaten and burned body. The Doctor dropped down and quickly checked his vitals. "Dead," he muttered. The killer was nowhere in sight.

"So now what?"

"Well this is a relatively small ship, it's just a case of figuring out where he went. He likes to work in secret but now we've blown his cover we have to figure out his next move."

"You seemed to know him pretty well, what do you think he'd do."

"Escape, his job's done, Karaxians are on their way and there's more than enough on the ship to lead them back to Earth. He may take pride in his work but he doesn't usually stay for the fireworks."

"But the job isn't done, if we destroy the ship then the Karaxians can't find out who attacked them. My guess is he's going for the self-destruct."

"Wouldn't he have disabled that already, he's been riffling through your systems for three years?"

"No, it's a closed system, the only place it can be accessed is in my quarters."

"Right then, let's go!"

xxxx

Rennes sat in the Captain's chair in a mock position of authority. He ran his hand over the work station, his on board computer easily interfacing with the one made thousands of years before it. Silently the killer cursed himself for not doing this sooner, but how was he to know the Capitan was immortal? The Doctor too seemed to have an unnatural talent for disruption, the timing of his arrival had been unfortunate but he was confident that everything would end according to the plan.

"So what's the plan then?" Jack asked as the Doctor hurriedly rewired the control's the captain's quarters.

"We stop him. He'd dangerous and he's wilfully rewriting history, we can't allow him to continue."

"I was more interested in the how. Got any specifics?"

"No, I was just going to improvise, you?"

"One but you're not going to like it."

"I wouldn't have expected anything less from you," the Doctor said with a laugh. Then the seriousness of the situation returned. "Whatever it is do it quickly."

The final wire sparked in the Doctor's hands and the door slid aside. Without a moment's hesitation Jack raised his revolver and fired. The bullet tore through the killer's shoulder and embedded itself into the wall behind, dislodging him from his seat.

"That was your plan?" said the Doctor. "To shoot him?"

"Worked didn't it?"

"Brilliant solution in it's own way, his shield was designed to repel energy based attacks but was unable to deal with a solid projectile like a bullet. I hope I'm not going to have to take that gun off you when we're done."

Behind the desk the killer raised his hand to his injured shoulder. He let out a pained grunt as a spark leapt from his fingers, cauterising the wound.

"Bullets? Really?" he called out through gritted teeth. "Who even uses bullets these days?"

With his gun still poised Jack began to move towards the wounded killer. "Come out with your hands up," he ordered.

Rennes smiled, "I thought you'd never ask."

A shimmer went round his body as the projection of his clothing fell away revealing a black jump suit with intricate patterns of silver circuitry running over the outside. He pulled the hood over his face, leaving the bullet hole as the only mark of his former appearance. The killer slowly emerged, his hands held in a pose of mock surrender. "OK" he jeered, "you got me."

The Doctor remained fixed to the spot, he knew what was coming and that he was powerless to stop it. Right now all he could do was talk.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"Who am I? I'm someone who isn't bound by the laws time. You see, I'm just like you Doctor," the Killer smiled, "I'm a renegade."

The Doctor and Jack shielded their eyes as a blinding flash shone out from where the killer stood. After a moment it died down and he was gone. Jack immediately ran to the work station.

"We're too late," he said after a moment consulting the program. "He shorted out the self-destruct."

"Show me the schematics, maybe I can make some kind of work around."

But as the Doctor crossed the room a muffled booming noise filled the room and the whole ship shook.

"Depth charges!" Jack exclaimed as he gripped his desk for support.

"They still can't see us," the Doctor observed. Despite the panic and the chaos his analytical brain was still explaining the scenario. "They're not trying to destroy us, just disable us and expose the ship."

"That last blast was close, do you think you think you still have time for your workaround with the self destruct?"

"Not any chance."

"Any other ideas?"

After a thoughtful pause the Doctor said, "Last time we met the assassin tried to blow us up using a power core from a ship, if we get to engineering I could probably rig up something similar."

"Not bad but I have a better idea. _I_ go to engineering to rig the power core and _you_ get the TARDIS and meet me there five minutes ago."

The Doctor nodded, this was not the time for putting up a fight. "See you on the other side."

As the Doctor ran out the door Jack stepped over to the desk, there was one more thing he could do, one last fail-safe he could activate. He quickly punched in his access code and watched as a progress bar appeared on the screen inside a box marked 'purging data'. The purge was his last chance to stop the ship's data banks giving up location of Earth.

He rose to his feet as the computer terminal, along with many others throughout the ship, began to spark and power down.

xxxx

The Doctor sprinted down the Raven's corridor, nearly colliding with with a figure running in the opposite direction.

"Haze!" He exclaimed.

"Doctor!"

"Come on, we've got to get out of here."

"Wait!" she gasped breathlessly. "We need to get to the infirmary, Gordon's still in there."

"No, I'm sorry Haze, but the assassin got to him first, he's dead and so's Kreigler."

Haze stood stunned by the new. She'd only known these people a short time but she felt the pain of each death. When the words to express her grief failed to come to mind she asked the only question she could think of, "What about Jack?"

"Oh he's fine, he's off trying to blow up the ship."

"What?"

"It's for the best, trust me. Now come on, we need to get back to the TARDIS."

He took the Scottish girl's hand and pulled her back down the corridor.

xxxx

"Come on Doctor, I said five minutes ago," Jack muttered.

The captain sat at Gordon's work bench hunched over one of the Raven's power cores. Engineering had never been one of his specialities, he usually had people for that. Tosh could have done it. Jack smiled for a moment at the memory of his late team-mate. Even though she had lived hundreds of years ago she would still had a better grasp of of how this ship worked than he did.

Fortunately spending ten years on a ship was good motivation to learn. He had been through the files multiple time in a commitment to learn his ship inside and out. He new the theory of how to make the power core explode, it was just his first time putting it into practise.

"Damn it!" he swore. The ship was rocked by another depth charge exploding outside. His had flashed out to stop the power core rolling away but in the process dropped the laser cutter he was using. Overhead the lights began to flicker, the explosions were getting closer meaning that the Karaxians were almost on top of them. With gritted teeth Jack gathered his too and renewed his efforts.

"Got it!" he announced triumphantly.

Quickly he gathered it up and ran across the room to re-inset it into the main engine unit. As he ran a familiar wheezing, groaning noise filled the room and out of the corner of his eye he saw a blue police box slowly appear. Breathing a sigh of relief he replaced the core and dived through the waiting doors of the TARDIS.

"Move!" he yelled as he it the cold hard floor.

xxxx

In the deep recess space, the uncharted dark of the universe, a Raven class stealth ship exploded, taking with it all traces of the human race's expedition into the region. The source of the unknown, unseen attack of Velitrax would have to remain a mystery.

xxxx

Jack slowly pulled himself to his feet. It had been hundreds of years since he had last set foot inside the console room and yet in many ways it felt as if he had never left. The Doctor was bent over the controls, fine tuning their destination with Haze stood tensely at his side. Clem and Hugo, who had been waiting patiently at the back approached their captain.

"Raven 16 has been destroyed," he said solemnly, "The the three of us are all that remains of her crew. Joseph Rennes was the killer, he escaped and we still don't know who he really is but his plan for the destruction of Earth at the hands of the Karaxians was prevented. What matters right now is that we're safe and the Doctor is returning us home."

Dr Goscinny breathed a sigh of relief. "It's over."

"It's over," echoed Hugo, "I have time now."

With those words Hugo sank to the ground with his head in his hands and began to sob uncontrollably. "Dead," he gasped. "Helena, Gordon, all of them dead."

Clem dropped down next to him and placed a sympathetic arm round his shoulders. "It's OK," she said reassuringly, "you're going to be fine." She helped him to his feet and escorted him into the back of the TARDIS.

Jack leaned against one of the handrails, alone with his thoughts.

"You don't remember me do you?"

Jack glanced over to see Haze standing next to him.

"Should I."

"That's aright, I never thought it was your most memorable encounter. Cardiff, 2008, you and your team were cleaning up after a particularly nasty incident at the University; several students had contracted some kind of alien virus, at least that's what I heard. I broke into your quarantined area to try and get an official comment off you but I got dragged away by your butler."

Jack smiled. "Ianto."

The incident was flooding back to him, he could clearly see Haze bursting through the door brandishing an dictaphone demanding answers about the body they were trying to move. He had never even made eye contact with her, all he remembered was the Edinburgh accent and her distinct purple hair. "Get her out of here," he had said and Ianto obliged. The last he had seen of her was her being pulled back through the door. How strange to run into her again after all these years. Maybe the universe was smaller than he thought or maybe the Doctor just had a talent for bringing people together.

"For what it's worth," said Jack, "I'm sorry."

"I hated you for trying to keep things quiet, but you were just doing what you thought was best."

"So were you. It's funny how two people with such good motives can act so differently."

"True. Can I ask a question though?"

"Ask away."

"If you were running a secret organisation on Earth in the twenty first century what are you doing here?"

"You'll need to ask the Doctor for the full version. I used to travel with him, so many years ago now. Basically I died, I was brought back to life and now I'm the man who can never die."

Haze nodded, "I heard rumours of your immortality but I thought they were just urban myths."

"All true unfortunately."

"Is this one of those situation where it's more of a curse than a gift?"

"You could say that."

There was a moments of silence then a groaning noise followed by a thud signified that they had landed.

"Right then," the Doctor said cheerfully stepping away from the console, "here we are. Sorry Jack but I thought dropping you back on Earth would raise too many questions so I've taken you to a space port on the edge of the Empire, you should be able to find your way back from here."

"Thank you Doctor."

"Haze would you be so kind as to tell our guests that we've arrived?"

"Sure," Haze said and wondered into the back of the TARDIS after Hugo and Clem.

"Oh and Haze, get Jack a new shirt." he added, glancing at Jack's exposed flesh.

Once they were alone the Doctor said, "You have a choice you know. You don't have to get off here, you can stay here, travel with me again. Come on it'll be fun."

"Thank you for the offer Doctor but I'm going to have to decline. We stopped Rennes from destroying the Empire this time but who knows when he will try again? Even if it's a hundred years from now I'm uniquely placed to prepare for whatever he's planning and stop him. Someone needs to warn High Command too, they need to know the truth about what went on out there. Besides, they still need me," Jack drew the Doctor's gaze to Clem and Hugo, crossing to control room with Haze. "I don't know what my next post will be, but something tells me I'm going to need a medic and a linguist."

"Well good luck captain."

"Thank you Doctor."

Jack turned and started to walk towards the TARDIS door.

"Good bye Haze," he said before leaning forward and gently kissing her forehead, "It was a pleasure to meet you. Again."

"You too Jack, maybe we'll all have to meet up in another seven hundred years."

The Captain smiled, "It's a date."

With the final good byes said Jack opened the TARDIS doors and stepped out into the bustling space port with Clem and Hugo close behind him. He smiled to himself. He'd had many fresh starts in his life, but he had a really good feeling about this one, a visit from the Doctor was just what he needed. He looked back in response to the familiar wheezing, groaning noise as the TARDIS, and with it the Doctor, once again disappeared from his life. He placed his arms round his two surviving crew members.

"So," he began, "did I ever tell you about the time..."

End.


End file.
